The foo_input_alac component only allows foobar2000 to decode ALAC files (hence the "input" part of its name). To convert files to ALAC using foobar2000, you need an ALAC command line encoder and set up a custom converter preset.

4. (Most of you will probably have this enabled, but just to cover the bases lolz) In foobar, go to PREFERENCES > CONTEXT MENU, and on the RIGHT SIDE, you will check the box for CONVERT, then exit that menu.

5. Right-Click any one of the songs you wanna convert. JUST ONE, though. Select CONVERT. In the dialog box, select "..."

Or you can use CUETools.ALACEnc.exe from CUETools (based on ffmpeg code, slower, but compresses a bit better).

What's the correct command line to achieve this? What files are needed to do this? ALACEnc crashes while trying to do it with CUETools.ALACEnc.exe, ...config and CUETools.Codecs.ALAC.dll in the same directory.

Incidentally guys, for those of you who are struggling with using foobar, I had to give up with QAAC.

With dual core's operating it crashed all the time, and with one core, the encoding was seriously taking forever, and I still got a crash or two (which is a pain when they occur 30 minutes after you fall asleep, and you were hoping to have most of the transcode done by morning).

I ended up paying for DBPowerAmp R14 full licence and I'm glad I did. Not only is its apple lossless encoder more than twice as fast (with automatic binary compare enabled!), it automatically embeds art in the ALAC if it was in the FLAC already, for example. It's dead stable (never crashed yet in about 24 hours of transcoding, dual cores)

Another huge benefit - when you rip with DBPowerAmp it will automatically find the artwork, and tags, and securely rip your CDs direct into ALAC w/ embedded art and proper tags and filenames. I removed a lot of foobar-steps from my CD-rip workflow too (in fact, all of them).

It's not free, and its not open source, but if your time is precious (as mine is) it's probably worth paying for. Once QAAC is stable with multiple cores, it'll be a slightly different story though....it'll just be weighing up speed and ease of use vs money.

Not what people want to hear in the foobar support forum, I'm sure, but I'm such a happy customer It's only fair to say.

Ok, HERE's the issue."qaac also requires MSVC7.1's C/C++ runtime DLLs (msvcr71.dll and msvcp71.dll). They are usually installed under Windows system32 directory, but if they are not in your PC, you have to get them from somewhere."

What's the correct command line to achieve this? What files are needed to do this? ALACEnc crashes while trying to do it with CUETools.ALACEnc.exe, ...config and CUETools.Codecs.ALAC.dll in the same directory.

In order to succeed in foobar with kgad0831 instructions you must have installed quick time....I Tried in Xp, Vista and w7-32bits and the instructions work. One cautionary tale, though, after install/reinstall quick time in win 7 I had to reboot the system (I did it in two different machines) and after that IT does really work!!!

Added --no-optimize option. By default, qaac optimizes the MP4 container after encoding has finished. "optimize" means arranging MP4 box in a better order for playing and eliminating unneeded free areas. However, when you run qaac from foobar2000(or something), it will rewrite the MP4 container afterward. In this case, optimizing with qaac will be useless and just a time consuming process.

This option was useful for qaac 0.16. For 0.37, there is almost no difference (just tested).